DonAndersen

BT.. Now for Bull trout all you need is a chunk of bully beef and 20 lb. test. I can see your aversion to size 26's and 7X. catch ya' Don

Got a new truck - there must have been 30 pages of how to put on a seat belt. Now if takes that much instruction, maybe you shouldn't and the world IQ would jump a few points. Don

Fisher26, To get back to your original question. Yarn indicators are hands down quieter, cheaper, cast better and float very well. You just have to get the right type of yarn. Macrame yarn is about the best. It's available in a host of colors but not @ Michael's. Only smaller shops stock the stuff now. Creative Artists Dream Ltd. in Rocky Mtn. Hse, has some - Phone # 403-845-3704. You occasionally should dress your indicators with Gink. After some time, they will become "dirty". To clean, thread them on a spoon & hold in place with a cloths pin. Into the dishwasher - remove before the heat cycle. Each of them should last about 100 + trips. Of course, 100 yards of Macrame costs about $ 18.00 & makes about 1000 indicators As far as naked vs indicator fishing - both have their place. Indicators will just make you better faster. Been fishing indicators for + 30 years. Tried them all. From panfish corks>beach shoes>steelhead balls>Rowleys>foam and on and on. Yarn is better by far. You should chose a color not to offend the fish. Hot pinks - reds - greens will sometimes cause the fish to spook. Try grey or black or white. Blend in with the background. NOTE: While I use the greys, black etc. occasionally, the bulk of indicators used are bright colors. I personally prefer a hot pink with a second choice of white. If using a dry/dropper system, my choice is a CFF for the top fly. The CFF and now the BM were both developed using Macrame yarn and both serve well as fish catchers and indicators. Have used the CFF in size #16 as an indicator for fishing midge nymphs in skinny water. Was amazing to watch the trout sometime leave their feeding station to take the CFF. For a discussion of indicators see: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dmanders/indicators.html For the article that appeared in the Alberta Fishing Guide on the CFF see: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dmanders/cff.html catch ya' Don

Hawgstoppah, You use 24's - you should really be using 26's. Got a lot of them - all tied on Partridge Capt. Hamilton hooks. All parachute. Haven't used 7X for about 5 years. Now, I only use the unbleached tresses of girls less than 4 years old - blond of course. A typical human hair is about 0.004" in blond. Don

Boy is there a pile of BS going on here. Fish Beaver lake a lot - I'm now aware to 4 people who clean up after others. New seen anyone else ever do anything of the literally 100's of anglers fishing. Oh , I get it - you all only pick up along flowing water. Just took 3 garbage bags of bottles/cans to the recycle depot. That's one year from Beaver and Ironside. And I'd really like to catch the jerk that invented water containers. Ya just have to wonder about the intellect of the jerk who buys bottle water for his/her health and then throws the bottles everywhere. A$$holes!!! Don

RussC, I too use Flourocarbon as tippet on lakes only and like some of the others have had a lot of failures @ the mono>flouro junction. I use 10 lb. Vanish as a transition material. Vanish is 0.001>0.003" larger in OD for the test rating. eg 8 lb. Vanish may measure from 0.009>0.011" depending on how well things went that day. catch ya' Don

Hawgstoppah, The numbers of fish in the Crow is not in dispute. The condition of them is. There is just plain less feed than there was. And I guess I stand humbled. I must not have the skill to catch the larger ones. Clive, You remember the days of the midge scum. Used to be great picking off decent trout feeding on minute'. Don

Clive, I'd fish it as well if it was the only game in town. Tis painful to see how shabby the fish and the bug populations in the Crow have become over the past 15 or so years. Still, all in all, it's now better than it was prior to the late 60's. Some *hit still matters. catch ya' Don

Fisher26, Clive is right on the lack of bugs. Been declining for a number of years. Some history - at one time, the Pass used outhouses - then to sewage collection with lump removal - effluent to river -bug population shot up - then further cleaning and low and behold the bug population dropped. When I lived in Pincher, the Crow was a ho-hum typical mountain stream. The sewage collection with effluent to the river made the bug population explode. A 18>19" fish weighted perhaps 3 lbs. Now, maybe 1.5 lbs. It's all about nutrient load. Never fished the Salmon Fly hatch but caught the goldens for years in late June. Was millions of them little suckers. Was an over-lapping hatch of Green Drakes @ the same time. Fishing was great. Now - I don't even bother going. BTW - the upper Bow is suffering the same lack of nutrient after Canmore changed sewage out-flow. The joys of a clean environment!! Don

Din, If I recall correctly, the older Model B Thompson vises had a truncated jaw. The newer ones are like the type you have. catch ya' Don

GuySmiley, Last number I heard quoted is about $ 20,000,000,000 behind. Now I just have to wonder how many hospitals/schools/roads you just might build with that. And the best part - nobody is blaming Ralph. catch ya' Don

Good video. Don

Guys, Machining TI is a real pain. And that is one machined reel. Plus it was probably 2 chunks of TI about 5"*5"*3". Expensive stuff about $30/lb. In comparison - prepeg graphite tape is about $40.00/ lb. A rod takes about 3 oz. catch ya' Don

Din, It's a Thompson model "B". One of the best vices ever sold. Cost was about $10.00 when I started tying. Other than a touch of lub on the vice jaw mouth and the tightening screw they last forever. I use a Barracuda Dyna King + a HMH. Retired the Thompson A, sold the Veniard rotary and wore out the Herter's Thompson A rip-off. regards, Don

Guys, Heavy oil is where it is @. No question BUT, it's located about 300>450 miles from Calgary. Do you guys really believe that your employer is going to have his workers commute that distance. In the longer term, you'd best pack your bags. The business is going north. Ft. Mac. + others with the heavy oil business will boom for all the reasons cited above but as conventional crude production drops, small town Alberta suffers. This is what I'm seeing all over Central Alberta. And for your interest - the maximum # of people required for any resource exploitation is 2 seconds before it is shut it down. Just to give your some comfort on gas prices. 1971 was $0.21/mmcf, process operator made $4.50/hr. A multiple of 21.4. Now gas price is $6.50/mmcf - same process operator makes $30/hr. A multiple of 4.6 Cost of most facilities is 60% labor. Tough to make a profit??? As far as resources, you bet - we got the tar sands left. Conventional gas is about gone. CBM is the only game left. Conventional crude is declining rapidly, southern Alberta is running outta water. But we got coal. Lots of it. All along the Eastern Slopes. And we're gonna do what we're gonna do it keep the good times rolling. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, It's a tough world out there. 1 US Oil Barrel = $80.00 US or $ 82.38 CDN 1 US bbl. = 159.96 liters 1 liter of car gas = $0.90 CDN & 1 US bbl. of gas costs $ 159.06 Cost of production of oil from tar sand = $ 12.00 CDN/bbl. So $ 12>82.38 = 694% increase & $82.38>159.06 = 193% increase and to really get your attention Cost of Production = $12/bbl or $0.075/liter and you buy it for $0.90/l resulting in a increase from producer > you of only $0.90/0.075 = 1200% And just so castus... doesn't blow a gasket - some of the 1200% increase is taxes. None of the price increase is royalties. Anybody catch Shell's CEO snivelling about the Royalty review? And if I was just a tad more cynical, what if the oil companies, knowing right well a royalty review as going to take place, decided to cut their investments in drilling etc. thereby forcing lay-offs with the resulting public outcry about job loss which forced the Govt to again give them all a royalty holiday. They wouldn't do that - would they? Just remember, oil companies have been known of over-throw Govts when things didn't suit them. regards, Don

Guys/Gals, Talked to 2 oil/gas field supply companies today - one does rig pad clean up - gone from 2/wk billings>1bill since January - the other is a small picker truck owner/operator who hasn't invoiced for 3 months. Talked to another last nite - he says he didn't have to lay off workers - they quit looking for higher paying jobs. After a month of searching, they were looking for their old jobs back. No such luck. The little guys are hurting. Don

Griz, Conventional Crude is about gone in Western Canada Basin. Eighty buck oil will only wind up the tar sands even more. Gas prices are stagnant. Most of the activity was related to gas. Gonna be an ugly!! Don

Guys/Gals, Well, sounds like here we go again. Lay-offs have started or are continuing in most of the oil centers in Alberta. Heard that Trican laid-off 100 guys and their trucks headed for the border [south one]. Repos of jacked up trucks and holiday trailers is going great guns in Red Deer. Folks in Grand Prairie are getting antsy. Work is slowing or stopped up there. Oil Week says 125,000 oil patch types to hit the bricks. We are seeing a lot less folks in our hotels/motels/restaurants/businesses in Rocky. How about you guys - seeing reality yet? Or is Calgary still in a frenzy? See: http://www.oilweek.com/articles.asp?ID=383 http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financi...b0e&k=33095 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...PStory/Business catch ya' Don

To all you lunkers, Why don't you post what pisses you off and Rick will push all your buttons for ya' Don

SilverDoctor, Trying to figure out what you used for the handle in the 2nd picture. From left>right, it looks like maple>cork ring>burled cork>birch tree bark>burled cork>cork ring>hardwood. Is the center section birch tree bark? How did you seal the sap? regards, Don

Folks, Please do not take your dog on private land especially if there is livestock around. Just what fisherman need is another pissed off landowner. Leave your dogs @ home. I recall a stunned outdoor newspaper reporters who let his Fing city dog run around and around a bunch of cows c/w fresh calves. Damn lucky it wasn't shot!! Don

BBB, See: http://www.tucanada.org/NP_FishRescue.shtml Takes place most every year. Don

You poll about years FF is a mite outta whack. Some guys fish 2 days/year, some a tad more. Ran into the same problem when people told me that there wading boots lasted 10 years but they fish 2>5 times/year. The real question should have been how many days/year do you fish + how many years fished + where. I generally run 110>130 days/year and been doing that for 30+ years. Before that maybe 50>70 days/year. Also, going to the same place and doing the same thing doesn't broaden the experience level a lot. Did a rough count and I come up with about 70 streams/rivers or creeks + 30 ponds/lakes. So your real question should have been of 3 parts: 1] How many years 2} How many days/year 3] How many flowing and stillwaters. This many provide a whole lot more information. catch ya' Don

Mikefronsundre - you're welcome - she got me the hottest yellow I've ever seen. Makes a real fine yarn indicator. The white is great for CFF's, the brown for down-winged stones, the grey for wings on this and that, the greens for hoppers, the pink & hot yellow for indicators. Flyslinger - been building rods since 1968 - first plastic - then cane. First cane rod built in 1980 or 81. Have made about 150 of them. They are scattered from England throughout N. America. catch ya' Don